Video Transitions: The Essentials and When to Use Them

We can describe a transition as any move between different shots in your video. Many people tend to think of transitions as always being flashy or noticeable, but the most-used transition is almost always invisible when used correctly – a simple cut. Simple cuts make up the majority of transitions you see in videos, whether you notice them consciously or not.

As we said, the most common transition of them all; one clip ends and the next begins with no overlap and no gap between them. While most of the time straight cuts go unnoticed, you can make hard cuts between scenes for a jarring, dramatic effect, or use them for comedic timing.

Often used to open or close out a scene, fading out of one scene to black (or sometimes white) and then fading back up into the next gives a sense of closure for the first scene and moving on to something new gracefully. You can often use fades to add a sense of conscious perception for the audience, such as fading out as a character goes to sleep or fading in when he or she wakes. Fading to black and staying on it for a few seconds before fading into the next scene can add a sense of time passage.

Fading one shot out while simultaneously fading the next shot in, instead of to white or black before fading into the next shot. With this type of transition, you'll see both clips on screen at the same time during the transition period. Cross-fades/cross-dissolves often make for excellent depictions of time passing or getting inside a character’s thoughts.

Just like it sounds, these transitions appear to wipe one shot away with the next one. Often done as straight or angled wipes, other variations include shapes, like iris wipes (circles), star wipes, or heart wipes. Other variations include clock wipes, which appear to sweep around the face of a clock, or matrix wipes, which look like an array of growing shapes like stars or diamonds. Famously used in the Star Wars films and others, they can be very effective transitions between scenes, but you don’t see them often because they can start to tire an audience if used too much. And, if not used tactfully, or if not properly used for an intentional cheesy or comedic effect, they can make your production look amateurish. One very effective use of wipes, though, can be to connect two different shots in a quick pan to make them look like one continuous shot.

Somewhat similar to very quick cross-fades, these use a bright (sometimes colored) flash to move between shots. Use flash wipes to emphasize quick points, but too much flashing will exhaust viewers very quickly.

Much like it sounds, one shot slides out to reveal the next. You might use these in a “slide show” style presentation.

Looks like the first shot is “pushed” out of the frame by the next shot.

The first shot “opens up” like sliding doors to reveal the next shot.

The first shot “splits” open to reveal the next shot, similar to a barn door, but the shot may split into fours and slide out to the corners of the frame, or other variations.

One shot appears to “roll up” or “peel off” and reveal the next shot.

The next shot appears to cover the first shot like a Venetian or vertical blind, with “slats” turning or rolling in.

The next shot flies in to cover the first one, or the first shot flies out to reveal the next.